For those towing or planning on towing with a Tesla. Some supercharger Tips.

Viajero · April 2022

Hi folks. We try to charge at serviced campsites when we can as it’s just more convenient and usually cheaper, but we also dry camping frequently in which case Supercharging is a fact of life when towing. This post is not about the tesla Superchargers that have trailer stalls or pull thrus. This is for the Superchargers that have only back in sites. Common in our area even with new V3 supercharger sites.

If you don’t want to unhook and the supercharger is not busy, if you do it right you can get away with only taking up 3 stalls. Pull in, pull forward to the very end stall and line up your charge port with the end stall. Stay close to the curb and pull forward a foot or two more. The cable should be long enough and the tail end of the T@B will not impede into the next stall. Heads up, this picture doesn’t show that. There was a lady in a truck beside the last stall having lunch and I didn’t want to make her nervous by pulling forward.

Anyway. Here are a couple pics for context. Just imagine the second last stall being the last stall.

More and more Teslas pulling T@Bs around here. I figure some will make it onto this board as I recommend it often.

And don’t do this if the supercharger is busy. Take the time to unhook and back in.

Cheers all.

John.

Towhee · April 2022

Maybe I am missing something from the picture, but why wouldn't you stop at the first charger?

Model Y and 320 s bd

Viajero · April 2022

Towhee said:

Maybe I am missing something ok from the picture, but why wouldn't you stop at the first charger?

Model Y and 320 s bd

I mentioned it in the post. No reason except that there was a lady having lunch in her truck kind of one space over from the last stall and I felt it would be rude to nose up to her truck with our car. I talked to her after and she was quite nice. I just didn’t want to spook her. But yah, it would have been one less stall being occupied.

Cheers.

d_v · April 2022

What is your typical wh/mi with the 400? What speed do you typically go for best efficiency (within reason). I realize slower is always better, but is 50 a significant difference from 60? What tires are you running on the 400? Have you considered low resistance ones?

Thank you,
David

CharlieRN · April 2022

d_v said:

What is your typical wh/mi with the 400? What speed do you typically go for best efficiency (within reason). I realize slower is always better, but is 50 a significant difference from 60? What tires are you running on the 400? Have you considered low resistance ones?

Thank you,
David

I'm also curious about your energy consumption @Viajero as I hope to transition to an EV in the not-too-distant future. In my case that vehicle will be the Rivian R1T with the large capacity 180kWh battery pack. There is very little data on the impact of towing on range, but what there is indicates that that drag has much greater impact on range than does weight.

The only factory towing test done by Rivian was with a large, closed utility trailer loaded to the the R1T's max tow capacity of 11,000 lbs. The result was a 50% reduction in range. Subsequent tests by various on-line reviewers confirm that drag is the primary culprit in reducing range.

In one recent towing test of the R1T simulating a high-drag, low weight load (using a 4x8 sheet of plywood mounted vertically on a small utility trailer), the vehicle was able to achieve only about 0.8 miles/kWh. The Rivian EPA figures for the R1T are in the 2.2 mi/kWh range, so that test indicates ~65% range hit.

It would be very helpful, and much appreciated, if you would share your consumption data.

Viajero · April 2022

Good morning DV and Charlie. Typical Wh per mile depends sooo much on speed. Heads up as everything is going to be in kilometres including wh per kilometres. I’m Canadian.

On our trip out to where we are now the wh per kilometre was around 290. But it’s a long slow curvy hilly road and I doubt I went over 60 kmh. I would say typical numbers are 300 to 400 wh per kilometre. We never travel over 90 kmh and quite often less. Again, we are in BC, so on these mountainous curvy roads the speed limits are lower.

If you travel primarily on American interstates it’s best to check with those who are towing in those conditions.

I feel I didn’t contribute much to your questions. Hoping you find a better source than us. Meantime we’ll head back to this for the day.

Safe travels all.

Horigan · April 2022

d_v said:

What is your typical wh/mi with the 400? What speed do you typically go for best efficiency (within reason). I realize slower is always better, but is 50 a significant difference from 60? What tires are you running on the 400? Have you considered low resistance ones?

Thank you,
David

It's good to understand that aerodynamic drag is a function of velocity squared. So the drag increase from going 50 to 60 is 44%!

Towhee · April 2022

300-400 wh/km works out very roughly to 480-500 wh/mile. This is what I experience on interstates and US hwys at 60 mph with my model Y pulling a 320 bd. If I charge to 300 miles indicated and plan to not discharge to zero this gives me about 100-120 miles of range. I camp at state parks here in Washington so range has not been a problem. Moseying along back roads at 35-40 mph is more like a 30 percent hit. Most parks here have both 50 and 35 camp outlets on the same pedestal which easily charges the Tesla overnight and providing power to the trailer. I also use a 35 camp splitter for those campsites that don't have 50 amp service.

Towhee · April 2022

One nice feature of the model Y is when punching in a destination into the navigator while in tow mode the car automatically adjusts to the lower range and will route you through Superchargers if necessary. Cost at Superchargers is less than 1/4 the cost of gas.

CharlieRN · April 2022

Viajero said:

Good morning DV and Charlie. Typical Wh per mile depends sooo much on speed. Heads up as everything is going to be in kilometres including wh per kilometres. I’m Canadian.

On our trip out to where we are now the wh per kilometre was around 290. But it’s a long slow curvy hilly road and I doubt I went over 60 kmh. I would say typical numbers are 300 to 400 wh per kilometre. We never travel over 90 kmh and quite often less. Again, we are in BC, so on these mountainous curvy roads the speed limits are lower.

If you travel primarily on American interstates it’s best to check with those who are towing in those conditions.

I feel I didn’t contribute much to your questions. Hoping you find a better source than us. Meantime we’ll head back to this for the day.

Safe travels all.

Thanks @Viajero I think your data points are useful and encouraging. I understand that power consumption in EV's is even more speed dependent than fuel consumption is for ICE vehicles.

I'm really hoping that between now and when the R1T Max is delivered (projected by Rivian to be in the "first half of 2023"; I suspect that the end of next year, or even early 2024, is more likely) there will be a lot more data on power consumption while towing available. The delivery gap also allows more time for the charging network to expand and improve, something that will go a long way to alleviate range anxiety.

Thanks again for the info. By the way, the Tesla & T@B shots look great!

d_v · April 2022

Viajero said:

Good morning DV and Charlie. Typical Wh per mile depends sooo much on speed. Heads up as everything is going to be in kilometres including wh per kilometres. I’m Canadian.

On our trip out to where we are now the wh per kilometre was around 290. But it’s a long slow curvy hilly road and I doubt I went over 60 kmh. I would say typical numbers are 300 to 400 wh per kilometre. We never travel over 90 kmh and quite often less. Again, we are in BC, so on these mountainous curvy roads the speed limits are lower.

If you travel primarily on American interstates it’s best to check with those who are towing in those conditions.

I feel I didn’t contribute much to your questions. Hoping you find a better source than us. Meantime we’ll head back to this for the day.

Safe travels all.

Thank you for the info! I’m about 250wh/mi not towing, so looks like towing will be roughly double.

CharlieRN · April 2022

Towhee said:

300-400 wh/km works out very roughly to 480-500 wh/mile. This is what I experience on interstates and US hwys at 60 mph with my model Y pulling a 320 bd. If I charge to 300 miles indicated and plan to not discharge to zero this gives me about 100-120 miles of range. I camp at state parks here in Washington so range has not been a problem. Moseying along back roads at 35-40 mph is more like a 30 percent hit. Most parks here have both 50 and 35 camp outlets on the same pedestal which easily charges the Tesla overnight and providing power to the trailer. I also use a 35 camp splitter for those campsites that don't have 50 amp service.

This is hugely encouraging and I can only hope that the Model Y and the R1T are roughly similar in terms of power consumption. If that's the case, the larger Max battery pack on the Rivian (180kWh with a nominal range of 415 miles vs ~115kWh / 300 miles for the Tesla) could translate to an effective range of 140 - 165 miles when towing my 320BD.

While I don't need that kind of range all the time, having it makes longer trips viable.

Denny16 · April 2022

I saw an owner review of a Rivian R1T truck, it looked very nice, just as finished and nice looking , as the inside as a Tesla. Whilst the bed looks shorter than my Jeep JT, it folds down with the tailgate lowered to a good size 7-foot bed. The owners towing experience shows he is getting about 50% of range towing a RV, due to added wind drag. Towing a smaller utility trailer is better, less drag and lighter weight, increase range. I am looking forward to the new Jeep EV version of the JT.
Cheers

Viajero · April 2022

Yah for sure. Trailer size and shape have a lot to do with it. But speed is the killer. Just conjecture on my part, but I’m willing to bet pulling a 400 at 80 kmh uses less power than pulling a 320 at 90 kph.

Having said that, when highway conditions allow we tow at max 90 kph. But we hang in the right lane and turn on TACC a lot. (Traffic award cruise control). The car just automatically hangs about 7 to 10 car lengths behind whatever semi it’s following, so quite often that’s closer to 80 kph on the hills. Nice relaxing way to travel, and Jarvis (Our Teslas nane) keeps us a separate distance to the vehicle in front.

Cheers.

Denny16 · April 2022

Nice, adaptive cruise control, as we call it, is nice to have. I tow at 50-60mph, and yes, driving faster increases the drag effect considerably above 50mph, the faster you go, the quicker the wind drag increases. For me, traveling with the TaB, the trip is part of the journey, not just the destination. A also try to say off the interstate highways, where the pace is often to fast.
Cheers

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For those towing or planning on towing with a Tesla. Some supercharger Tips.

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